NUC8i7HNK3 randomly freezes

[douglowe]

I'm having issues with my new (less than 3 months) Hades Canyon PC freezing. This tends to (but not always) occur a few minutes after booting - a hard reset does solve the problem, and it tends not to happen more than once a day, but it is very annoying.

I'm running Windows 10 Home on it (upgraded from Win7) - with Corsair Vengeance 16Gb DDR4 SODIMM DDR4 2400MHz RAM, and a 1Tb PNY XLR8 CS3030 M.2 NVMe SSD.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what might be causing the issue - or any diagnostic checks I could carry out to find this out?

[LeonWaksman]

Hן @douglowe 

In order to get better information about your system, please download the Intel System Support Utility (SSU). Run the SSU scan and save the results. The .txt file with the results please attach to your post.

Leon

[douglowe]

hi Leon,

I've attached the report from the SSU scan.

I've also applied the latest BIOS update (after carrying out this scan) - previously I was on v59, now I'm on v61.

Please let me know if you see anything in the report which might explain the errors I'm getting.

Thanks,

Doug

[douglowe]

Also, I have run memtest86 - this reported no problems with the RAM.

[LeonWaksman]

Hi @douglowe ,

1. I can see that the AMD driver you have is outdated. So, open Apps and Features (Windows settings), click on AMD Software and then click on Uninstall. After finishing uninstalling Process, reboot your NUC. Next, download the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.12.1(download the version for Windows 10) and install it. Yes, I know that this not the latest version of this driver, but in my opinion this is the best for now for your NUC .

2. Download and install Intel® Management Engine Consumer Driver

3. Download and install the Intel® Chipset Device Software   Reboot your NUC.

4. FYI, this is the download page for your NUC.

Leon

[douglowe]

hi @LeonWaksman,

Thanks for the advice. I've installed the AMD and Intel drivers, and will see if they make my system more stable over the next couple of weeks.

cheers,

Doug

[douglowe]

My problem has got worse.

I had a BSOD this evening - with the stop code: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. I rebooted to safe mode, and when looking at the system settings found that clicking on "focus assist" or "clipboard" would cause a SystemSettings.exe error: overrun of a stack-based buffer in this application.

I tried reinstalling windows over my current install - this did not fix the problem (in safe mode I got the same errors from SystemSettings.exe). I came back to my PC now, to try wiping it, and fully reinstalling - and it wont boot at all, just gets stuck in a loop: I get a flash of lights, a sound like the fan is about to start, then it switches off, before trying again (see the attached video). It has done this once before, last week, but it recovered after I unplugged it. It is not working now.

I assume I'm going to have to send it back under warranty for replacement - unless anyone can suggest something fixable which could be causing this?

[douglowe]

Reseating the RAM has fixed the problem (this time). But has anyone encountered similar, intermittant, hardware issues?

[powerarmour]

Hi @douglowe 

The only major issue I've had with the Hades Canyon has been the recent 0061 BIOS, but otherwise 0059 has been stable and I'd say the only other minor issue I've dealt with is reapplying some decent thermal paste to keep max CPU temps <90'C.

Otherwise it's a great little machine, and still the best NUC you can buy IMHO.